Tuesday 26 May 2009

Good Day II

I should play more but got other things to do ^^, I will certainely try harder tommorow to put more hands in. Up $400.0 today ($298 ev adjusted) although perhaps lucky to find some donks at the table, such as the one in this hand.

Monday 25 May 2009

Good Day

Today was alot better, I thought I played well and I wanna try and keep my winrate above 10 big blinds per 100 hands. I really feel like I am playing well and I have the potential to make hundreds day in day out, and hopefully more later. I went to the pub today so didn't play as long as I could.

Sunday 24 May 2009

BetFair

Today was my first day back at the tables after deciding to BR myself for $50NL, I decided to make use of the rakeback offer at BetFair giving 60% rakeback for up to $2500 and then 30-40% afterwards. I cant believe how good rakeback is, I have definately been missing out, especially as BetFair is really soft. The players are passive and very nitty pre flop although I am quite used to this but I actually think it is less aggressive than pacific. I have to say I dont enjoy playing at poker stars and getting 3-bet relentlessly from the blinds when in late position.

Twice I got QQ all in pre against AA, and after playing 3000 hands I didn't see anyone else go all in pre, unless they were less than mid stacked and one guy paused on calling with QQ for 40BB against me and I had JJ and i was like wow... It is just so transparent you spend an hour playing against some people who always are calling and playing weak post flop then eventually they 3-bet you and then on the flop they pot it... its like erm i wonder what you have lol! Its in spots like these where JJ becomes hard, can you really fold JJ-QQ pre to these nits I think you can, maybe i can learn how to fold.

Post flop I saw some really crazy calls resulting in back door flushes in craziest spots ever and people stacking with 2nd/3rd pair and rivering me. Although one guy bluffed 80% of his stack on the river for a large overbet and I had rivered the nut straight, so shoved the rest in and he called with 6 high lol, snap called then left. He must hate money. My bluffing had mixed results, but I feel pleased because the times I got picked off, I had read the hand correctly, just I had made a bad read on thinking they would fold. This is easy to adjust and in spots like these I can value bet thinner. After a few hours playing I was down 6 buy ins and 4 buy ins below expectation, which doesn't count some annoying spots where they hit but you have a set and have to pay the unlikely part of their range.

Overall down $86 but I believe up $120 in rakeback, but not 100% on that.

Saturday 16 May 2009

Thoughts for future

Well I quit poker for virtually 2 months. I completely switched off from the game and thought I would never play again. After 1 month I felt no desire to play and the thought of playing sounded boring. Despite being in the final run up to my final exams for university which I will take in a few days I gave alot of attention to producing a techno track, something I ocassionally do in my spare time. Although I am happy with my progress I dont like the way I cant compete with professionals, i.e quality of kicks and I think there is so much learning to do. So... having gave music another shot I decided im not good enough at it.

I think there is still much more I can achieve in poker and I want to give it another shot. I like the whole image surrounded around playing poker, gambling money, just there are things that have annoyed me, such as the fact I never got past 100nl which I felt was because of the fact my BR never could grow due to studying and paying bills out of my BR. Now I have had a proper 2 month break I feel my patience has been restored even though I haven't actually played yet. On my last couple of sessions I was really getting frustrated with the game not so much bad beats as I was running good although any kind of suck out made me angry. It was more having players who are clueless making semi decent moves or even just making awful moves and just listening to people at the casino talk about "strategy". Ye my mind was definately not focussed and I had lost all love for the game.

When I play again I want to make the following improvements from the way I was playing before. The first is mainly thinking more... it sounds stupid but I know I am capable of just thinking more and sometimes I choose a more safer router and stack of saying to myself this is standard... when I know I could have analysed the situation I am in better and thought about the other factors. 3-betting AQ for a reason!! and thinking about how I will react to a 4-bet and considering flatting AQ and then thinking how I will react on certain turn cards and then considering all my options. Obviously I do this already but I think changing my mind set to think more outside the box will help my game.

The main problem I will face is how will I BR myself, having not played for 2 months I have run out of money lol. When i finish uni forever on the 22nd of may I will be down to virtually £0. I have the option to use my savings. This feels pretty... umm.. bad but I am confident in my game. There is a chance I will lose money then quit poker again but I think its pretty low. I guess at least I dont owe anyone money from university. Although I could consider getting stakes and I know a couple of people who would likely be interested. The upside is they take my risk but the downside is it slows me down. I will likely choose to not get staking but then I wonder if I should start at 50nl instead of 100nl. Now comes the really awful thing, If I bankroll myself for 100nl, I wont be able to use my savings as most of it is tied up in an ICER until august meaning I would have to use my overdraft lol.. Thus I would be gambling with the bank's money, BANKROLLED by LLOYDS TSB, BRAG OR BEAT? Anyway if i lost some money I would pay the interest free overdraft with my savings in august. LOL so complicated, and actually sounds worse than it is. My current online winnings stand at $15K and I aim to make the next $15K quicker than I did the first.

Short Term Goal: Hit the $20K life time mark (thus make $5K). I hope to do this within 2 months.